At the beginning of this month, the U.S. Department of Defense released what it called “new, previously never published files” on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP). The release took place under the Trump administration’s initiative, the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE). It marks the first serious step toward transparency on an issue that has been surrounded by rumors and conspiracy theories for decades.

As Space.com reports, 158 files were made publicly available — documents, photographs, and videos from NASA, the FBI, the Pentagon, and the State Department. Additional materials are expected to be published “on a regular basis.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the department fully supports the president’s push for maximum openness.

Hegseth said that these files, which had been kept classified for many years, had fueled legitimate speculation, and that it was time for the American public to see them for themselves.

 “A useful start,” but more questions than answers

Experts who have long studied UAP (formerly known as UFOs) responded to the release cautiously. According to many of them, much of the material was already known to researchers, albeit in more heavily redacted form.

Mark Rodeghier, president and scientific director of the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies, described the release as “a useful start.” He said he hoped it would become a regular practice to release previously unavailable documents, well-documented investigations, and videos from which all necessary information has not been removed.

In his view, centralized access and reduced censorship would help researchers better understand how official agencies received, assessed, and often simply filed away UFO reports. However, short videos and brief summaries without metadata, investigative history, and analysis are difficult to properly evaluate. Rodeghier emphasized that true transparency is about context, not just clips.

Criticism: limited data, limited context

Robert Powell of the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies noted that the recent disclosures are important at least because they confirm that society and the media take the phenomenon seriously. However, he suggested that the redacted files and lack of scientific evaluation are not answers, but rather a kind of “mandate” for the academic community to address the topic openly.

Alejandro Rojas, a consultant at Enigma Labs, said the release appears “unfinished.” According to him, many cases are presented with minimal context, without sensor data or in-depth analysis.

He explained that an insufficiently detailed infrared clip and a paragraph of text are not enough for serious scientific analysis, which requires coordinates, sensor parameters, altitude, and verified speed.

Rojas added that many cases are classified as UAP simply due to a lack of data for identification, rather than clearly anomalous behavior. Nevertheless, he acknowledged that imperfect data in the public domain is better than perfect data locked away in a safe, and that each new case adds an additional point for analysis.

Enigma Labs has already created a website where the published files can be easily searched and studied, as well as discussed within a community.

Recognition of a real and unexplained phenomenon

Michael Gold, president of Redwire Space and a former member of NASA’s independent UAP study group (2022–2023), took a more optimistic view. He argued that, for the first time in history, the White House and relevant agencies have officially acknowledged the existence of a real and unexplained phenomenon on a global scale.

He particularly noted that NASA and the Pentagon confirmed the authenticity and unknown nature of an object in “Apollo 17” images.

Gold said that the most powerful words in science are “I don’t know,” and that he was grateful NASA and the Department of Defense showed enough humility to acknowledge this.

He emphasized the unprecedented nature of the current administration’s approach, saying that nothing like it had existed before. Gold also recalled his recommendation to add UAP reporting to the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS), which would allow pilots, crew members, and even commercial passengers to act as “sensors” for data collection.

In brief

The Pentagon’s first major UAP release under the PURSUE program includes 158 files from various agencies and represents an important step toward transparency. Experts describe it as a useful start that confirms the existence of a real unexplained phenomenon, but criticize it for a lack of context, sensor data, and deep analysis. Many materials were already partially known, and the release raises more new questions than it answers. Specialists agree on one point: this is only the beginning of a long process, and future batches of documents will be decisive for understanding the nature of UAP.